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Review: Athleta Thrive Fit Fest (Harrisburg)

This past weekend I attended the Athleta Thrive Fit Fest in Harrisburg, PA. It was the first time I had ever been to a “fitness festival” but I have seen them popping up everywhere, so I decided to give one a try!

I had a great experience and got to try a lot of different workouts, products, and food that I normally wouldn’t have. The whole thing was a bit intense with back-to-back workouts scheduled, but you can pick and choose what you want to try. I, of course, wanted to try almost everything…and now I am super sore because of it! But damn if it wasn’t a great way to spend a day!

My friend and I arrived in Harrisburg bright and early on Saturday morning. The first workouts started at 8:00am.

We got there a little early to sign-in (we got swag bags upon arrival!) and to scope everything out. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, but the organizers made it work and were able to find cover for all the scheduled activities.

The first thing you saw were all the vendors.

The vendors ranged from gyms to food to fitness non-profits. There was a wealth of knowledge and expertise depending on what you were looking for.

I jumped right up into that silk and did my thing! I think I may have surprised some people who didn’t know what aerial yoga was.

The rest of the activities were organized on three different stages. The activities were scheduled with enough time so that you could experience them all or at least see what was going on. I can’t imagine working out for 4 hours straight, but the option was there if you wanted to 🙂

On stage one we saw some of the Zumba and participated in the Yoga and Barre sessions. The yoga was a 30-minute session of Power Vinyasa Flow. It went pretty quick but was a great way to stretch things out. The barre class was a 45-minute session put on by the local Pure Barre location. Barre is a mix of ballet, pilates, and yoga that uses small, focused movements to give you a full body workout.

On stage two we saw Pound and participated in the Abs & Tabata and Strength & Conditioning. I wish I would have had more energy to participate in the Pound class, it looked like so much fun – drumming and working out – there is nothing wrong with that! However, by that time my legs were done!

We did the Abs & Tabata and Strength & Conditioning because it’s not something we normally do. I do a lot of cardio with indoor cycling and running so I wanted to see what the options were for more strength training. These 30-minute sessions were definitely hard, but totally worth it! I was much stronger than I thought I was!

For the day, I walked 14,611 steps, burned 3,806 calories and had around 3 hours of total active time!

Stage three was reserved more for workshops and seminars. We didn’t go to any of the activities on stage three because we too busy doing the other stuff.

However, I did visit the folks that put on the braiding workshop. They were offering free hair braiding to all the participants! It was great to get my hair out of the way! You can’t see it in the picture because my hair is too dark. But, they did an upside down french braid in the back and then continued braiding down my ponytail.

After we were done working out we checked out the food vendors…which I forgot to take a picture of. But at this point, we just needed to refuel! My body was tired! We tested some nut-butters, my friend got a smoothie – and they provided her with the recipe so she could make it at home! I got a salad bowl with ginger soy pork. Everything was really good!

Also, we got some snacks in our swag bags that we had to try out.

For you IP-ers out there I realize that these aren’t on protocol…but at this point, I would have eaten anything! Both were really tasty, all natural, and gluten-free.

Honestly, this was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. I tried new things and learned a lot. I would 100% do one of these again…as soon as I forget how sore I am right now haha! I have been stretching and rolling my muscles out like it’s my job! 🙂

If you decide to go to a fitness festival here are somethings I would recommend:

Bring a water bottle. Staying hydrated will be essential.

Bring a towel. You will be a sweaty mess otherwise!

Bring a yoga mat you don’t care about. Because we were on blacktop and everything was wet I ended up just tossing my mat because there was no way to get it clean again. Depending on the conditions I wouldn’t bring your favorite, super thick mat with you.

Be willing to try it all. All the instructors were super nice and if you can’t do something there is always a modification.

Come with a plan. Know which workouts you definitely want to try, what time they start, and where they take place. Past that, you can see what you find once you are there.

And that is it! Have you ever attended a fitness festival? Which one? What was your favorite thing you did while you were there? Let me hear from you in the comments!

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Welcome to My Beautiful Ideal

Hello my name is Jamie Boden, the author of My Beautiful Ideal! I started this blog to celebrate my journey to find my own beautiful ideal. Will I ever obtain it? Probably not! But, with a bit of optimism I hope to live the best life possible and share all my tips, tricks, failures, and successes with you!